See ‘Metropolis’ Thursday, Feb. 24, at the McNay

What better place to enjoy a work of science fiction art than at a museum? The McNay Art Museum will screen Fritz Lang’s silent sf masterpiece Metropolis Thursday, Feb. 24, at 6:30 p.m. for its Get Reel film series at the museum’s Chiego Lecture Hall.

This is what you call a big deal. Epic in both scope and ambition, Lang’s Metropolis chronicles the class war between the rich city planners who lord over a sprawling city of the future and the poor workers who toil beneath its byzantine streets and skyscrapers to keep that great tea kettle percolating. Those social structures come to a head when the city planner’s son falls in love with a working class woman who predicts the coming of a savior who promises peaceful coexistence — forbidden unions that inadvertently give birth to a haunting but beguiling robot crafted to break hearts and sow discord.

Yes, Metropolis is that deep. And it’s even better thanks to 25 minutes of newly-discovered footage. This restored version of Metropolis clocks in at the estimated 153-minute run time of the film that was first screened in Berlin in 1927. Hello, lush subplots and further post-viewing discourse.

The Metropolis screening is free for McNay members and $5 for nonmembers. Wine will be served before the screening at 6 p.m. at the Chiego Lecture Hall entrance.